Chapter Text
There is always a point at which Jungkook just stops and wonders:" How the fuck did I end up like this?"
It happened that time he decided to eat three whole boxes of pepperoni pizza. Or when he was climbing the statue in the middle of a fountain on campus at two o’clock in the morning.
That's exactly what Jungkook keeps asking himself at 3 am on a Tuesday, lying awake in his bed with his thumb hovering above the screen of his phone and he just can’t think of an answer.
Maybe if he goes back a few days, he would know. Well, now that he thinks about it, it all started on that fucking day. Another situation where “The thing” has done him wrong.
***
Shit. His class was canceled. Jungkook looked around one more time to see if the professor and the other students had hidden behind a corridor. He had even checked the men’s restroom. He had also contemplated checking women’s restroom but had decided against it. Professor Lee was too conservative and probably not desperate enough. He went back to the classroom door but the offending piece of paper was staring back at him. Bold black words burned their way to the deepest corners of Jungkook’s brain; “Professor Lee’s Mechanical Design class is canceled until further notice”.
The thing is, Jungkook wasn’t sad about the concept of literally any of his classes being canceled. Hell, he didn’t attend half of his classes just because he didn’t feel like going. On the other hand, he might have been the tiniest bit worried about Professor Lee, since that old man never canceled his classes without announcing it at least three weeks earlier, but that wasn’t his problem either.
Jungkook finally pushed open the door to the classroom. He checked under the table at the front of the class to be a hundred percent sure and finally plopped down on a chair in the front row. He wasn’t having the best couple of days and for the first time in maybe forever, Jungkook had been looking forward to one of his classes. And all of that because “The thing” was back. “The thing” that made him either go looking for a tree to climb or stay buried in his bed for twenty hours straight with only one bathroom break. He wasn’t sure which scenario was worse but he definitely hated the second one. He hated the feeling. Like he was somehow both a sinking stone and the water that it sunk into.
His roommate was the one who finally pulled him out of it, literally and figuratively. Just a few hours ago, Yoongi had pulled Jungkook to a sitting position on his bed, thrown a towel at his face and grumbled about how he was “too old for Jungkook’s antics”. Jungkook had stared, unmoving, and tried to say how he never actually bothered anyone but himself. He had tried to explain how he dealt with his own “antics”. He had tried to mention the time he bought Yoongi a new trash can after throwing up all the undigested pizza in his old one. He had tried but he couldn’t. his lips felt like they had melted together some time in the last couple of days. His throat was probably drier that the Sahara Desert. So he had sat there, looking at Yoongi and feeling so fucking tired. Yoongi had looked at him like he knew and then mumbled, “just take a shower, kid”.
Anyway, he was out of bed and in the class now. He didn’t want to go back to the dorm and face his bed or the looming deadlines he had been neglecting all week. He also really didn’t want to stay around the engineering building and nod at people he barely knew or have awkward small talk with them. So, he pulled his phone out of his pocket and called Jimin. Jungkook didn’t really have a best friend or maybe even friends in general but he might, under severe torture, admit that Jimin was his closest friend or maybe his only friend. Besides his roommate of course. Yoongi felt more like a parent though, to be honest.
Jimin picked up after two rings.
“Is your phone glued to your hand or something? At least give it a second! What the fuck?”, Jungkook said, mortified.
“Are you actually nagging me for answering you? Ok then.”, Jimin screamed and the call was cut with a constant beep.
Jungkook looked at his phone. Jimin’s sleeping face kept staring at him with an open mouth. The next two calls went to the voicemail but Jimin finally picked up the third time.
“What do you want, Mr. Almighty?”
“For real, Jimin?”
“I. said. What. The. Fuck. Do. You. Want.”
“Okay. Okay. Just wanted to know if you’re free. So we could maybe hang out or something. I don’t know.”
The line went silent. Jungkook could still hear people talking but Jimin wasn’t saying anything. The thing was: Jungkook never did this kind of thing. He almost never asked people to hang out. He hardly ever picked up the phone to just call someone that wasn’t his parents. That might have been one of the reasons he didn’t have friends anymore. Except Jimin of course. That boy was too persistent for his own good.
“Hey are you still there?”, Jungkook asked after way too long.
“Wow. Yeah actually I am. Or I think I am. Since you practically blew my mind right now. Is everything okay? Are you okay?”
“What? Am I not allowed to want to hang out with you?”, Jungkook didn’t really want to answer Jimin’s question. He was never a good liar after all.
“Don’t get me wrong. Nobody’s complaining over here.”, Jimin didn’t seem to notice Jungkook ignoring his question, “Well, actually I have to meet a bunch of people for a group project. But we’ll be done in an hour or so?”
Jungkook could wait an hour. He could maybe sit here and think which is probably not the best course of action at the moment. Or he could walk around the campus among other people? No. he definitely could not.
“Can I join you guys? I’ll just sit there and wait.”, Jungkook knew that he wasn’t acting like his usual self but whatever. He really didn’t have the energy to pretend.
“Yeah sure! Didn’t think you’d like to but why not. We’re on the second floor of the arts building. Room 205.”
***
As expected, Jungkook met jimin. He was also expectedly introduced to two of Jimin’s groupmates as “My high school friend who studies mechanical engineering. Weird right? I mean who fucking chooses that with their own free will?”
The thing he absolutely, a hundred percent, did not expect, was what happened right after all of that. What happened was exactly in this order:
- Suddenly the door of the classroom flew open and hit the wall with a bang, Probably leaving a dent in the white paint.
- Jungkook was so startled that for some unknown reason, he decided to jump on the closest chair.
- A boy with disheveled purple hair and swollen eyes, pretty much threw himself in the room.
- The boy’s shoes somehow slipped on the very dry and not at all slippery floor.
- He fell on his butt with a loud “hmph”. His (quite long) legs stretching out all the way under the chair that Jungkook was standing on.
- The boy looked up and his eyes met Jungkook’s who, at that point, was yet again wondering “How the fuck did I end up like this?".
- Time stopped.
It might sound like a bit of an exaggeration, but Jungkook is pretty sure he was lucky enough to experience a rare case of time manipulation. Because at that moment, nothing seemed to move. Jungkook’s organs decided to take a break after 20 years of hard work. The earth decided to stop spinning. Even the simple rules of physics probably didn’t apply anymore because jungkook felt like he was floating. And even though he was standing on the top of a chair with his hands up in the air (like he did care a fucking lot) and face a step away from catching on fire, for the first time in a while, he felt like he was in the right place at the right time.
***
Sadly, the moment was soon interrupted with the sound of Jimin’s screeching laughter while he clapped and almost fell out of his chair. The other two classmates sitting beside Jimin started laughing, too. However, all Jungkook could see was the red sipping onto the boy’s cheeks. He finally lowered his hands and jumped down. Reaching out a hand to help the boy get up while he glared at Jimin. “Stop acting like an excited seal.” He has almost forgotten about his hand reaching out when a sudden warmness enveloped it. His head snapped back to the boy with a loud crack and pain seared down his neck.
“oh my god! I can’t believe this is happening.” Jimin said between hiccups of laughter.
“me neither.” Jungkook mumbled while rubbing his neck with one hand and hauling the boy up with the other. Could human skin be that soft or was this boy an alien?
“Thank you. I am really sorry. I don’t know why that happened. I was just running as fast as I could and I guess I couldn’t really stop when I reached the door. I am so sorry.” The boy kept rambling and all Jungkook could think about, was how deep this guy’s voice was and how much he wanted for the ground to open up and eat him right now.
Jimin finally quit acting like the seal he really was and stood up. “Namjoon! Calm down. Our boy Jungkook right here has been in way more embarrassing situations.” He started laughing hysterically again and Namjoon’s cheeks got even more red. Namjoon? Jungkook had no idea names could be cute.
He opened his mouth and struggled to make a sentence. “Um… yeah he’s totally right. Don’t worry about it.” His organs were back at full force after a much needed break and his heart intended on pumping all of the accessible blood to his face. “You didn’t break anything, right? That was a really bad fall.”
Namjoon finally let go of Jungkook’s hand and dusted off his pants, checking his body for anything out of place. Jungkook summoned all the strength he did or did not have to stop himself from doing something stupid. like cradling the hand that was just in Namjoon’s against his chest or trying to preserve his hand in a jar for the rest of his life.
He was distracted from his mental battle when Namjoon’s voice blessed his ears again. “I guess nothing’s broken this time. My body is used to falling at this point.” And then he smiles. Jungkook was sure all the capillaries in his brain ruptured at that moment because there they were. Dimples approximately three times deeper than the Challenger Deep were staring at his dumb face. His brain was dead. He hoped at least his donated organs could help someone.
Thankfully, Jimin decided to stop laughing like a mad man and told Namjoon to take a seat. Jungkook spent the next hour staring at his (possibly unusable for life) hand, waiting for it to do something. Maybe catch on fire or somehow fly and poke its finger in Namjoon’s dimple. Nothing was impossible at that point. He could hear the four other people in the room talking about their project but couldn’t really focus or even try to understand what they were talking about. Once in a while, Namjoon’s voice would tickle his neurons but it wasn’t enough to bring Jungkook out of his catatonic state.
He must have gotten up at some point and said goodbye to the others because when he finally regained consciousness, he was standing beside Jimin in the hallway and Namjoon was disappearing around the corner. He took a deep breath to compensate for more than an hour of not breathing and the first thing that came out of his mouth was: “I’m pretty sure I’m in love.”
Jimin did actually fall on the floor from laughter this time.
***
So, that is probably why Jungkook’s panicking right now. Or maybe because he has Namjoon’s Instagram page right in front of him with his shaking finger hovering above the blue “follow” button.
Jimin showed him Kim Namjoon’s Instagram page after the embarrassing incident, right over Jungkook’s steaming cup of mocha and Jimin’s super sweet hot chocolate. Jimin was the one who suggested this act of stupidity which is following Namjoon. With words along the lines of “just do it! He’s a really nice guy. Nothing bad is gonna happen.” It had taken Jungkook approximately 80 hours to gather his courage and get to this point.
Should he really do it? Should he take the risk of outing himself as a crazy stalker with no social life? Is it worth it to risk his non-existent dignity for seeing more pictures of the boy that could stop the time? Well… Absolutely. Jungkook has never felt like this before. He has had crushes. He knows all about the tingly feeling and the following disappointment and sadness. Mostly followed with “The thing” saying hi from the underworld and then crawling right back into Jungkook’s chest. But this feels so different. There’s this need to know more. Like his body and mind screaming for it. It’s like the time he decided not to eat anything for three days but he started craving cheeseburgers after the 14th hour.
So he does it. His finger finally touches the cold glass screen and “follow” is replaced with “requested”.
Jungkook stares at it for a minute. And then he starts panicking. Now Namjoon knows what a creepy stalker Jungkook is and he’s going to the police because he’s scared of this stalker and Jungkook will spend the next thirty years of his life in jail and he would never be able to graduate and get a degree or a job and his parents are going to be so disappointed. Namjoon’s probably not even awake at this hour anyway. Only stupid people like Jungkook or crazy workaholics like Yoongi are… Oh.
The sound of a bottle being opened runs over Jungkook’s train of thoughts. It must be a Pinterest notification or Twitter or… HOLY FUCKING SHIT
“Namjoon (kim.joon) accepted your follow request”
Oh shit. Fuck. Shit. Fucking shit. Oh no. What should he… he should probably change his notification sound first.
“kim.joon started following you”
Jungkook almost throws his phone at the wall but stops himself since college tuitions are no joke and he is broke. He does throw it two feet away on the bed though. Then he grabs the pillow that was on his lap and pushes it on top of the phone, trying to suffocate the poor electronic device.
The door of the room clicks open and Yoongi comes inside, trying not to drop the plastic bag in his hand while he pulls out the key. It is finally freed and dropped back to its place on Yoongi’s full keychain when he looks up. “What the fuck are you doing?”
Jungkook lets go of the pillow and sits back on his bed. “Umm… nothing?”
Yoongi keeps looking suspiciously as he closes the door. Jungkook looks back at the pillow. He can almost smell the phone burning through it.
Jungkook is absolutely and undeniably fucked.